Volkswagen brand car sales fell 0.5% in July because of Europe

Volkswagen Ag, Europe’s largest carmaker on Tuesday announced that global sales of its core passenger-car brand fell 0.5 percent in July to 466,100 vehicles on weak demand in Western Europe.

Western European deliveries excluding VW’s German home market fell 6.8 per cent to 492,400 vehicles. However, year- to-date sales are up 4 percent to 3.38 million vehicles, the Wolfsburg based automaker said in the statement.

“Given that the uncertain economic conditions will continue over the coming months, we are keeping a very close eye on developments in global automotive markets,” sales chief Christian Klingler said in a statement.

New car sales in Europe fell 5.6 percent last month as sluggish growth and high unemployment continued to sap demand the European Automobiles Association (ACEA) said. According to the same source, in Germany car sales fell 4.7 per cent, 8.4 per cent in France and 5.5 per cent in Italy. But the UK is doing good as new vehicle sales are up – More than 162,000 new cars were registered in July 2013 – a 12.7% rise on the July 2012 figure, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said last week.

France’s Peugeot, which is cutting 8,000 jobs and closing a factory in the country, was one of the biggest sales casualties last month among the main carmakers.